A Chance Encounter
by Banshee Wolf
Summary: One Shot featuring the day Jasper met Alice. If there is interest I may add a few more chapters. Enjoy!


**Authors Note: I started this probably three years ago while I was bored and rereading Eclipse. I found it earlier today while browsing through my iPad, and decided to finish and post it up. Finally broke my writers block that I've been dealing with for the past couple months. So woot for that!**

 **I don't own anything! Jasper and Alice and the general idea of the story all go to Stephenie Meyer. I only added the embellishments. The image for the cover ( I HAD to pick one, wouldn't let me publish until I did) belongs to Lighto and was found on Zerochan - it's super cute by the way if you happen to see this. 3**

 **Read and Review - this is a one-shot but if there is interest who knows, maybe I'll add in a bit. Hope you guys enjoy!**

It was raining. That did little to improve my mood. In fact, it did quite a bit to make it worse. I was thankful for it though, the dark clouds over head did a good job of blocking out the sunlight, that allowed me to venture out during the day.

The daylight. I still wasn't comfortable being out and about at the same time as the sun. I still wasn't used to constantly being around the humans.

Humans. I was surrounded by them. There weren't very many in my immediate area, but there were plenty near by. A bus drove by, filled with high schoolers. I took a deep breath. Even from the distance and through the metal of the solid yellow bus, I could smell the human's sweat, and blood. So many different scents assaulted my nose.

I was thirsty. I stopped my breathing. It was more from habit than necessity anyway. I hadn't fed in days, and I knew I would have to find someone soon. But for now, the hunger meant my eyes were darker than they usually would be, and that meant I could maneuver around the humans without being noticed. I came to a stop under a street light.

For several minutes, I stood there, in the downpour, and thought about what I should do next. I obviously couldn't just stand out in the rain...that would be odd to the humans.

My eyes scanned the town below. Cars drove past me in the street, and a small grocery store was open across the lanes of traffic. I had no need for groceries...the cashier perhaps, but not the merchandise.

I looked in the other direction. There was a sign for Ed's Diner half a block down, and a neon sign read "open." I rolled my eyes. I had no use for that either. I can't eat human food, and being around all of the humans eating would just make me want them all the more.

But, I couldn't just stand out there in the rain any longer. I started walking. I had every intention of walking past the diner, but then I caught someone's emotions. They were so intense. I leaned against the brick wall just outside the diner.

I tried to get a handle on the wide range of emotions this person was feeling. Thirst, they were a vampire. I could feel their need to feed,it had been as long for them as it had for me. Hope, they were looking forward to something, and I could tell they knew life was going to look up. Love, not necessarily for anyone in particular, at least not that I could tell, but for life in general. This confused me, how could a vampire be so pleased with their life? Or perhaps future life? Either idea seemed ridiculous to me. The last emotion, and perhaps the one most on the vamp's mind, was impatience. They were waiting for something, and they were getting tired of it.

Now my curiosity was perked, and I decided I had to know who was inside that had such complex, and positive, emotions. I decided once and for all to go into the diner, and suddenly the emotions changed, first was surprise, as if something were happening that they hadn't expected, then excitement. She was practically bubbling over with excitement and impatience, the impatience was more intense now. I could tell now that it was a girl, only a female would be capable of being so bubbly.

I pulled the door open and walked into the diner. Immediately, my eyes scanned the small room, and it took only a half second to find her. It was easy. Her eyes were glued to mine.

She smiled, and slid off the bar stool she'd been sitting on and more gracefully than any human, or even vampire I'd seen, walked straight over to me.

At first I thought she was going to attack, after a century of nothing but fighting and killing, it was what I expected at first. but the feelings her emotions gave off were anything but violent. She was happy, and she was beautiful. I'd never seen a creature equal to her. She was so tiny, it looked like a strong wind could blow her away. She looked so fragile, but of course I knew better than that. She was a vampire.

Even without the scent I could tell by the way she moved. She was so fluid and graceful, as if she'd been a dancer in her past life. Maybe she had been, in our species there is no telling. She was practically skipping by the time she made it over to me. Her hair was dark brown, and had curls that bounced as she reached me, and as she stopped in front of me the curls finally came to rest about an inch above her shoulder.

"You sure have kept me waiting long enough." She scolded me. I wasn't sure why she'd been waiting for me, or for how long, but for some reason I was sad to have disappointed her.

I gave a crooked smile and removed my Stetson, and nodded, "My apologies ma'am"

She smiled, and I could tell from her emotions that all was forgiven. She was just glad I'd finally come, which begged me to ask, "How did you know I was coming?"

She did her own version of a crooked smile, "I'm..." She glanced around the the diner, and in a very quiet voice that I would have missed had I not been a vampire, whispered, "talented that way."

I nodded, I understood. She was gifted. We both were. Now I had another question. "I must know, what is your name?"

She smiled, and twirled in a circle as she went back to her bar seat. "I'm Alice."

I followed her over, and took a seat beside her. "Major Jasper Hale, at your service."

She smiled, I was noticing that she smiled a lot, and clasped her hands together on the counter top. "We are going to have so much fun together!"

I lifted an eyebrow, not quite sure how to reply to that. So I just asked, "Fun doing what?"

She smirked. "Everything!"

I couldn't help but laugh. Her bubblyness was starting to rub off on me. "Well, ok then."

She smiled, and laid a five dollar bill on the counter, no doubt a tip for the waitress that hadn't served us anything, and bounced out of the diner, I followed close behind her of course, and rushed in front of her to open the door for her. I had to fight not to move faster than a human would have, but I was more concerned with beating her to the door. She smiled as I held the door for her. "Thank you."

I nodded, "Any time."

We walked out into the rain. She practically danced down the street. I smiled as I watched, and she came bounding up to me. "Come on Jasper, let loose a little."

She laughed and danced away again. We were passing a movie theater when she was suddenly at my side again, this time she wrapped her arm through mine. "Let's go see a movie!"

I lifted an eyebrow. "You want to go see a movie? With humans?"

She shrugged. "Why not? We might as well be up to date with what's going on in the world around us."

I pursed my lips together, and thought for a second, then shook my head. "It's a bad idea. At least right now. I haven't fed in a few days."

She smiled, but I could tell in her emotions that it saddened her. That just wouldn't do. Anyone that happy on a general basis should never be sad. Ever. Especially not because of me. "I'll go feed. I'm sure there is a lowly human around here somewhere that wouldn't mind me making a meal of him."

She hesitated, and her emotions changed, she was nervous of something. She was going to tell me something, and she knew I wasn't going to like it. I sighed, "What is it?"

She bit her lip, a motion that I found quite adorable really, "We should stop feeding on humans."

I lifted an eyebrow, "And do what? Starve?"

She shook her head adamantly. "No. We could live off of animals."

Now I smirked, and bit my lip to keep from laughing. "Animals."

She nodded, "There is a family up north, the Cullen's, who survive solely off of the blood of animals."

I nodded, "Ok, what does that have to do with me? Or you?"

She smiled, "I've seen the future. We have a future with them, a HAPPY future with them."

I scanned her emotions for some sign of deception, but of course found none. She was being honest. I could feel hope in her, she was full of it. She honestly thought that there was something worth going up there for. And she was anxious, she was anticipating my answer. She was waiting to see if I would give up everything I'd ever known to follow her on some hair brained scheme, that she had somehow "seen", which I would ask her about later. But she was also confident. She had known me all of five minutes, and already she was confident that I would say yes, but I could also tell that there was a small part of her that was worried I'd say no. Well, who was I to disappoint such a lovely lady? I could always leave if I needed to later.

I sighed, "Alright. Let me feed, then we will go see a movie, then we will go find these Cullens you speak of."

She squeaked, and I mean, literally squeaked with excitement and her emotions nearly overwhelmed me with happiness. She hugged me, tight enough to have killed me had I been a human, and then danced off towards the nearby forest. "Let's go!"

I smiled as I followed after her, and soon enough we were in the woods hunting down a small group of deer. Oh joy. I wasn't really looking forward to this, but if it made her happy...

Why did I care? I hadn't known her long enough to be worrying about her like this. But something about her made me care. Something about her made me want to keep her happy, no matter what it took.

Apparently it would take me eating a deer. We ran through the forest, much faster than any human was even capable of seeing, and it took us no time at all to find the deer. He was a big one, and I knew he would keep me full for a day or two anyway. At least that was my hope.

In one swift movement I ran forward and snapped his neck. He was dead before he hit the ground, then, quickly while he was still warm, I drained the blood out of him. It wasn't anything like drinking a human's blood. It wasn't as satisfying, not by a long shot, but it did fill me up, I felt a little stronger now.

I wiped my face clean and turned to Alice, being sure to make a grotesque face, "That was quite possibly the worse thing I have tasted in my life, vampire or human."

She smiled, "You'll get used to it."

I shrugged, "I hope so."

"Well, look at it this way, if you live off animals, you won't have to murder any more humans."

This made me pause. That was true. Recently I'd been doing some soul searching...if that was even possible for our kind, and I decided several months ago that I was tired of being the bad guy. I was tired of stalking the streets in search of my next meal, trying to judge by their emotions which humans were good, or the ones that were nothing but trouble. I was tired of feeling the terror every time I took a life. And it was impossible to feed without taking a life. There were no emotions with the deer.

I sighed, "Well, it's going to take some getting used to."

She smiled, and finished off one of the does. "Trust me, it gets better."

I nodded, and hoped that she was right. "Now, how about that movie?"

She smiled, and started bouncing away. "Right! Let's go!"

We began running again, this time towards town. "So, what movie are we going to see?"

"The Three Musketeers."

I lifted an eyebrow. "Like the book?"

She nodded. Huh. Could be interesting.

We made it to the theater and got our tickets with a few minutes to spare, no went inside to find our seats. Immediately I could smell the humans around me, it was impossible not to be surrounded by the thunderous heartbeats. They practically begged to be eaten.

I was thankful that I'd had that deer, as at least now I had better control over myself. I felt Alice's emotions shift to slightly humorous, and I glanced over at her. She had on a smile, "Don't worry, Jasper. You won't hurt anyone."

I rolled my eyes, and wished I could be as sure as she was. We settled in our seats, and a few minutes later the movie started. First there was some preview, mostly news reels about things that were coming up and that had just recently happened, and I realized for the first time how out of the loop I'd been.

I hadn't paid any attention to what was going on in the world around me, not since the end of the war. After that nothing had really mattered. I'd of course known of the two world wars, but had I paid any attention to what had been happening in them? No. I'd been too focused on Maria and raising those newborns. And destroying them.

Finally the previews and news reels ended, and the main event started effectively breaking me out of my reverie. It wasn't exactly what I had been expecting. For starters, it was a musical. One of the main characters, played by Gene Kelly, was constantly singing or dancing. It was just odd. But the constant giddiness coming from the seat next to me kept me thoroughly entertained throughout the movie, even if the movie itself wasn't exactly to my tastes.

A few different times during the film I took a few sneak peeks. What was it about this woman that had made me completely enthralled with her? I had made a major lifestyle change without giving it much thought. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to live up to her expectations...although I desperately hoped that I could.

At one point she turned to face me, catching me red handed. "Mr. Hale. I do believe you're staring."

I smirked, "Well, Miss Alice. I do apologize. But you make it awfully hard not to."

She smiled, and even blushed a little if my eyes weren't mistaken. Then she was leaning closer, her lips just inches from my ear. My breathing hitched as her scent assaulted my nostrils, effectively distracting me from the multiple humans nearby. "Well then, how about we get out of here?"

Now I was confused, "But your movie isn't over."

She chuckled, and her amusement washed over me in waves. "Look again - the credits are rolling."

I looked up at the screen and sure enough, sometime while I'd been lost in thought the entire film had finished. I gave a slight laugh and shook my head. "Very well then, let's get out of here. Where to?"

She pursed her lips together while she thought. She seemed to be staring off into the distance until a few seconds later when she smiled and focused on me again. "Well, you said we could go find the Cullen's. What about to the Bus Stop?"

Of course. The Bus Stop. I'd JUST gotten off of the bus and now this woman wanted me to get back on it. I sighed. But I felt her excitement building - somehow she already knew what my answer would be. "Alright, fine. Let's go."

An hour and a half later we were on yet another bus, this one headed North. I didn't mind one bit, each mile the wheels turned I was carried one more mile from my past.

Alice and I spent the trip blissfully. She told me about her gift. I told her about mine. Eventually we realized we had been on the same bus with the same passengers for almost five hours. If one of the humans noticed that we hadn't drifted off at all then there would be trouble. I mentioned this to Alice, and she proceeded to fake a yawn and settle in on my shoulder.

I smiled, thinking I must be one of the luckiest guys alive...er...well you know what I mean. And I rested my head on hers, settling in for my own "nap". It was going to be a long ride North.


End file.
